Whether you want to maintain great results from a professional pest service such as Pinnacle Pest, or just prevent unwanted bugs and vermin from getting into your house in the first place, natural repellent plants are a great option. You could try planting them as a border, placing some in pots near entry points, or even placing small tied bundles of leaves inside your home. Here are a few of the best known and most readily available natural pest control plants in Australia.
Basil: Basil not only repels flies and mosquitos, but it also doubles up as a culinary herb. Not to mention, it smells great!
Catnip: This herb, as well as being like a happy drug for cats, is also great at repelling ants and a range of beetles including aphids, weevils, and even cockroaches.
Chrysanthemum: As well as producing an attractive flower, this plant repels cockroaches, ants, ticks, silverfish, different types of lice, and fleas. It’s ideal for households with pets and children.
- Coriander: Like basil, coriander doubles up as a culinary herb. It can be planted to deter aphids and mites.
- Dill: Dill is not only delicious and pleasantly fresh smelling, but it also repels aphids, mites, and some types of worms.
- Fennel: Fennel repels aphids, slugs, and snails. You can also eat the white crunchy part of the plant.
Garlic: When planted in the ground, garlic bulbs help repel aphids, moths, snails, borer beetles, and some types of worms. If you live in a semi-rural area where rabbits are a pest, it can also help to deter them too.
Lavender: Lavender doesn’t just look pretty and fill the air with a pleasant scent, it also repels moths, fleas, flies, and mosquitos. It’s easy to bundle the cut flowers and use them like a potpourri around affected areas.
Lemon balm and lemon thym: These are both great at repelling mosquitoes. As an added bonus, they can be used for a bit of ground cover and smell great when the leaves are crushed and the natural oils are released.
Spearmint: It’s not just a gum flavor – it’s also a relatively hardy herb that’s great at repelling rodents, as well as ants, moths, fleas, and certain beetles.
Thyme: Thyme repels a variety of beetles and worms, including cabbage maggots which can wreak havoc on your veggie patch. Consider planting a bit of thyme as part of a herb border to your vegetable garden area.
Venus flytrap: The Venus flytrap is well known as a carnivorous plant, and does indeed attract and ingest flies. However, each trap on the plant only ‘eats’ one fly every week or two, so don’t expect it to take care of large swarms of flies. It’s also not ideal for households with curious small children, as excess touching to trigger the trap mechanism can actually kill the plant.
